20 JOURNAL OF THE 



east and this continues until the divides have moved to 

 their present position, and by this time the Little Ten- 

 nessee has captured and inverted all the waters west of 

 the Balsam Mountains and the divide has moved to Road 

 Gap where it stops on account of the rocks that outcrop 

 here. The Hiwassee is gfradually overcome and captured 

 in a similar manner. This only leaves Pig-eon in its orig-- 

 iual position and running- over what we now call Hominy 

 Gap to the French Broad, and on the west we see the riv- 

 er that is to capture it cutting* throug-h the Smokies and 

 gradually capturing- its headwaters until they are finally 

 all captured and led out througfh the Smokies. The New 

 Found Mountains form a barrier between this river and 

 Hominy Gap — the bed of the original stream is still the 

 lowest gap in these Mountains. 



The creek that flowed from the gap to French Broad is 

 Hominy Creek and since the days of the readjustment it 

 has recaptured two of its old tributaries; i. e. the two 

 small branches that once ran to Pigeon River, now run 

 into Hominy Creek and thence to French Broad^. All these 

 waters that originally found their wa}' to the sea through 

 the upper French Broad valley would have made a large 

 valley and such we find to-day. This stream has been cut 

 into and captured by a stream from the west thus invert- 

 ing the French Broad from its original course. The 

 French Broad from the mouth of Swannanoa to Brevard, a 

 distance of about forty miles, is a very smooth, sluggish 

 river, so slow in its movements that one can but notice it 

 and compare it to other mountain streams that usually go 

 so rapidly. This is evidence of an inversion which has 

 evidently taken place. From Asheville west, the French 

 Broad is noted for its beauty, which consists in its rough, 

 rugged course over rocks and through gorges, winding its 

 way through the Great Smokies into the Appalachian 

 River. There is very little fall in the French Broad be- 

 tween Brevard and Asheville while between Asheville 



* National Geographic Magazine, vol, I, no. 4. By Bailey Willis. 



